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T005 Soviet North

Supreme Soviet Commander
5 Panzer Divisions and 2 Motorized Divisions are directly threatening the city of Leningrad.
I think you will be VERY please with your replacement for 23rd Army.

Supreme Soviet Commander
The plan was to create a frontline from Leningrad to Pskov to Velikie Lukie to support effort to protect Moscow's flank... The reinforcement was to help create that defensive frontline... I dont know why ... retreated all the troops from there, to the exception of a few divisions...gave them a whole lot of ground that could have been defended and would have slowed them down several weeks...The enemy is free to encircle both Northern and Central Commanders.

The north at least was in real danger of “PacMan” bites while Osinovets was being bombed. In the end, the Northern strategy made the best of it given the eventual outcome. There are not enough Soviet units to defend the current line and they are not deep enough. So terrain that takes up MP’s that is substituting For a unit that could delay was likely the best of many poor choices. If you want to see what is possible ... I think turn 11 ? The whole 4th Panzer Army takes a big bite of the Soviets.

T005 Soviet Centre

Supreme Soviet Commander
It looks like 2 SS div. (Das Reich + Grossdeutchland) are getting ready to do a pincer movement on Smolensk with the 19th Pz Div... prepare for the defense of Velikie Lukie. ... Do not let the road to Moscow be captured... Take the peasant and build a few fortification along the Rzhev-Kaluga line... If Smolensk and Vyazma were to fall. Retreat to defend the Rzhev - Kaluga Line. Then proceed to defend the Tula - Orel line.

T005 Soviet South

Supreme Soviet Commander
Hold Odessa. ...I expect the Germans will be trying to break trough to Dnepropetrovsk and Odessa. They will most likely push for Kiev after capturing the Pocket in the marshes. Prepare defense in Sevastopol with your reinforcement would be my suggestion.

Soviet South Commander
I did 2 counter attacks to get some wins for guards status eventually. Also isolated 2 panzer divs and bumped 2 panzer HQs so their southern spearhead won't have much fuel at all next turn. Odessa will require a major effort so that's German infantry that will show up much later along the Dnepr. Also their rail heads seem to be 1 whole turn behind schedule, good news. Replaced 1 commander (18th army).

Supreme Soviet Commander
Airforce Commander You are to cease all air mission immediately, the only airplanes flying will be those assigned to your next mission. I want all Recon airplane to be assigned a fighter escort. I want to know what is going on in the Southern Region, more specifically, in the triangle from Kirovograd, Nikolaev and Krivoi Rog. Try to use as little as possible, I want to know where the South is going to be hitting for its next breakthrough. So try to find mass formations of enemy division.

Supreme Air Commander
Comrades the mighty soviet air force will be spending the next few months screening industry in the back and reinforcing itself. It appears the axis have been probing are rear industry and that I will put an end to. My other focus over the next few months is fleshing out Moscow Air Command. ...Come late fall 1941 I will move the air most likely south for winter counter offensives. This leaves the north with not much help in the near future...

ORIGINAL: Beria

Supreme Soviet Commander
Airforce Commander You are to cease all air mission immediately, the only airplanes flying will be those assigned to your next mission. I want all Recon airplane to be assigned a fighter escort. I want to know what is going on in the Southern Region, more specifically, in the triangle from Kirovograd, Nikolaev and Krivoi Rog. Try to use as little as possible, I want to know where the South is going to be hitting for its next breakthrough. So try to find mass formations of enemy division.

Supreme Air Commander
Comrades the mighty soviet air force will be spending the next few months screening industry in the back and reinforcing itself. It appears the axis have been probing are rear industry and that I will put an end to. My other focus over the next few months is fleshing out Moscow Air Command. ...Come late fall 1941 I will move the air most likely south for winter counter offensives. This leaves the north with not much help in the near future...

This is very interesting. It is the north that needed fighters starting this turn to defend Osinovets. (Flak had not been made deadly yet). Seven turns from now Leningrad will be isolated.

The AI flies the Finnish air force during Soviet turn 5 to places they would never allow us to fly them to!

For information only - attached turn 6 Axis team allocations

T006 Axis Karelia

Janisjarvi line stormed

An excerpt on from the team chat on the Axis Team Discord channel discussing ways to cross the Luga - ideally the infantry would clear a bridgehead free of ZOCs so that motorised forces can cross with the minimum of movement cost. Here is one suggestion

And another suggestion earlier on


During the start up of the game all ground commanders were rated as inexperienced with the exception of the Axis South commander who was considered experienced as a Soviet player only. Already all the team chat and studying the game together is showing how much they have developed since the start of the game. Looking back on where they were on turn 1 (see post 150 fb.asp?m=4662127 ) they are already laughing at how they used to play the game.

To see this turn in the AAR by the Axis North commander click here

T006 Axis

T006 Axis Air

Soviet air set up is a few biplane fighters behind the Volkhov in range of Leningrad, And every other fighter at Moscow or the airfields to the rear. They only have recon in the south.

From battle results it is becoming apparent that their air doctrine stipulates 50% or 55% of their air group needs to be ready for any of the airgroup to fly.

And the damage at Osinovets takes a jump up

Good air offensive on the Axis side. Week Soviet defense from what I can see. There should be around 300+ Soviet Fighters as well as heavy AA concentrated on protecting Osinovets. If you do this, you will hinder the Axis from reaching the damage levels that they need to shut the port down.

50-55% ready needed for an air group to fly is unnecessary. The Soviets should contest the air as much as possible. They can afford to lose many more planes than the Axis. Being passive in the air as the Soviets is the one thing that every German commander wants to see, it allows the Axis to bomb and GS with impunity and launch such attacks as shown here.

The fighter bases at Moscow are only in range if you can push the staging base forward first - I think someone on the Soviet team has been counting hexes! In these turns Axis ground commanders are also the air commanders of their area, so it is easy to co-orindate. The picture below was made during the turn to other team members to illustrate. It shows with a circled red 1 where a German staging base is and targets that are in escort range of it have a circles blue 1. If during the turn the hexes with a circled red 2 are captured, then the hexes with a circled blue 2 can then be in escorted bombing range. And so on with 3. So even though some things are out of escorted bombing range at the start of the turn, that will certainly not remain the case.

Rail repair in north and centre - past Pskow but two turns from Vitebsk.

Rail repair in south - manual repair is well behind where it would get to in other games. A critical rail hex in Hungary was damaged by marauding Soviet units (circled in red) and this is blocking a crucial automatic rail repair route coming out of there across the mountains. If this is not repaired quickly then the important Rumania by-pass will not be ready in winter.

T006 Soviet Karelia

T006 Soviet North